Issue #221 / Apr 2019

DVD: System Rescue CD and MX Linux

As computers get more powerful and computer applications get bigger and more ungainly, users end up with the same question no matter how many times they upgrade: How do I make the most of my system resources by tuning up system performance? This month we explore some tools that offer a window into the performance and health of your Linux system: Netdata and perf.

Other highlights in this issue include:

Steam Proton -- this Wine fork running within the Steam Play gaming system provides a seamless way to run Windows games on Linux.

File syncing with unison

Run virtual machines in Gnome Boxes

In the past, using virtual machines required expensive programs such as VMware or open source add-ons such as VirtualBox. Today, thanks to Gnome Boxes, many distributions native support for virtual machines.

The sys admin's daily grind: sudoers

"I've seen penguins that can type better than that." If you give sudo the wrong password, you deserve to be shouted at, says sys admin columnist Charly. He is not exempt from the insult and sees it as an opportunity to raise sudoing awareness.

Kraft helps small companies keep track of invoices and other docs

Image processing with Go

Go comes with an image-processing toolkit right out of the box. In this month's column, Mike Schilli explains how to walk through a photo's pixels to detect the foreground by comparing values against a threshold and shows how to manipulate the original by creating a nice looking silhouette.

Network commands like ifconfig and route are still popular with users even though they are far past their prime. Their successor, ip, provides the capabilities of several legacy tools with a single, unified syntax.